Every year, the municipality allocates a neighborhood budget to the city for organizing activities that help bring people together. In 2024, Almere residents requested the most money for social activities (such as neighborhood and street parties and theme parties in the area). 44% of the budget went to these types of initiatives. The districts that received the most funding were Buiten and Haven.
The neighborhood budget is intended for initiatives and measures by and for residents that visibly contribute to the appearance and social cohesion in and of neighborhoods.
Councilor Micha Mos (Livability, participation): “The applications for the neighborhood budget make a few things clear: Almere residents enjoy meeting each other and like to organize activities with their neighbors. And importantly: Almere residents love a party. The applications for the neighborhood budget make me happy and hopeful: all these types of initiatives greatly help strengthen the connection between neighborhood and city residents. It is important that we, as a government, can contribute to that.”
Initiatives and Expenditure 2024
The top 3 themes for which money has been requested are:
- social activities (44%)
- sports and play (22%)
- meetings and representation (11%)
The initiatives are further broken down by district. For example, residents of Haven requested money last year for green maintenance and the Keti Koti celebration in Haven.
In Buiten, money was requested for the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the archaeological site Zenit. The neighborhood budget was also used for larger parties with many visitors, such as the cherry blossom festival and the Christmas nativity route.
In Stad (Noorderplassen-West), a natural meeting place was established with the neighborhood budget. Additionally, the Artplayground was started in Beatrixpark; a meeting place for young people where various activities are organized. Residents of Stad also requested money for the self-management of the islands at Leeghwaterplas and for the celebration of the spring festival in Danswijk.
In Hout, the budget was mainly found for neighborhood and street parties. Thus, the opening party of Neighborhood de Vallei could take place on the neighborhood plot thanks to a contribution from the neighborhood budget.
In Poort, the neighborhood budget was used, among other things, for the establishment of the first neighborhood library, designed and built by a resident, and the 10th anniversary of Zuiderduin was celebrated festively.
Better Utilization of the Budget
For 2024, the neighborhood budget was € 456,400. Of this, € 283,415 was spent.
Councilor Mos: “That not the entire budget has been spent is an important task for us as a municipality: we need to ensure that more people know that they can use the neighborhood budget for activities in their neighborhood. We are going to work hard on this this year.”
The amount remaining from 2024 will be used for initiatives around the celebration of 50 years of Almere. Additionally, the neighborhood budget will contribute € 125,000 in 2025 and € 225,000 in 2026 to initiatives for the celebration of 50 years of Almere.